Crashdown Heaven
by YashaIgnisVolk
Summary: Thousands of Shinigami wield their Zanpakuto for a lifetime, never to meet it's spirit. The Captains of the Gotei Thirteen are not among those unlucky souls. Reverse-roles AU.
1. Great Skull Emperor & The Wolves

There is a certain quality to arrogance that most people misunderstand. The simple act of being boastful does not make someone arrogant. The belief that they are better, that they are the superior individual does not a prideful person make. No, it is the act of testing that belief. To live ones life unbroken. Every hill conquered, town raised, army left scattered to the winds and challenge left broken on the path to another. Arrogance is the question asked once before being forgotten.

'What if I fail?'

It is a thought left to wander until reality finally turns it's attention to you, a thousand years of good fortune and success come crashing down all at once. A warning left unheeded because at the time it was irrelevant.

His soul world is quiet, the ground made of finely crushed bones with thin pillars raised towards the clear night sky. So thin, yet they bore the weight of the sky with ease. Defiant and imposing as the throne that sits among them. Barragan expects to meet his Zanpakuto face to face, as equals or more likely with him as his swords better. After all without him, the spirit never would have been brought into existence in the first place. Instead he is made to approach the throne on a path of grey. It is meant to be humbling, he simply finds it an annoyance.

Atop the throne sits a corpse, dressed in fine purple robes and lavished in golden trinkets. The corpse of a king. There are no eyes but the young shinigami, the first of many to come, can still feel the gaze weighing him. Taking his measure. It is a stare he returns. This is his world and he will not be judged by a mere tool.

"Normally one bows before their king." The corpse's voice is low and heavy, seeming to speak without moving his jaw. Slumped in it's throne, with a haughty air to it Barragan is almost impressed. Mere bones asking him to bow. His Zanpakuto is a jester. In poor taste, sure but a jester none the less.

"Normally one doesn't talk to a sword, they swing it and it obeys." He returns to the nameless skeleton, watching the light play off it's golden crown.

If a skull could smile, that's how Barragan would describe the look he was given. Motionless bone shifted to sit upright, as if to remind Barragan why he was here. To earn power, as if the power wasn't already his. He simply needed to go through the extra step to obtain his right.

"Your name, spirit?"

"Arrogante." The corpse replies as black mist swirls into shape around it's right hand. All traces of humor left it's grave tone as it stood up. "My name is Arrogante. And you, shall treat me with the respect I deserve."

Centuries later, when his skin has started to sag and hair gone white with age, Barragan would visit his soul world. The pillars were untouched, the grounds as alabaster as before but with each passing year the corpse would be a little more worn, his trinkets left tarnished and his once pristine cloak running to rags. This was the corpse of a conqueror, with the scars to prove it, there is strength hidden in those imperfections that fill him with a heady pride.

With his final breath as he cursed Yhwach, Barragan has to wonder if the pillars had finally crumbled under their burden.

* * *

He was trudging through sand. There was no great adventure, or story to be told for his journey. Simply a patient man putting one foot in front of the other. Starkk has to wonder why he was given such a laborious task, and he puts it down to luck. He would be unlucky enough to get such a grueling taskmaster of a Zanpakuto.

All in the name of obtaining comrades did he push forward. No wind whipping at his cloak, his soul wasn't that dramatic or inclined to effort. Simply white sand and black sky as far as the eye could see. There was no need for weather, not when he already walked by himself.

He doesn't react when the first wolf joins it's stride with his. A wisp of light that pants as it follows him step for step. Deep within him he knows, the moment he acknowledges his new companion will be the moment it departs. The lessons of the past are deeply ingrained, and a mask of lazy-apathy is easy to maintain. He keeps walking.

More join, his companion becomes a trio, then a quartet until he has a pack. Still it grows, an army of glowing fangs among the shifting sands, yet still Starkk looks forward, walking. He is a lone wolf among the gathering. He stops only when he finds a rock in his path, brown and wind-worn there is nothing special about it, aside from the girl sitting in front of it.

A child, wrapped in a grey cloak matching his own. A sole light pink eye watches him as he stands before her, the other hidden behind a curtain of green-tinted blonde hair.

"Took you long enough." The annoyance written across her face is matched by her tone.

"Sorry." The word held a dose of sincerity to it. He had been told by Barragan that the process of getting to know ones Zanpakuto changed from person to person, he simply hoped that his wouldn't be more troublesome than it already was.

"You better be." The girl said as she jumped to her feet, and turning her back to Starkk. "Come on then."

He fell into place beside the girl, and again they walked.

"You haven't asked me for my name." A simple statement of fact as they finished climbing another dune, the thirteen since they began this little journey. His pack had long dispersed since the girl showed up. Now, it was just the two of them.

"Would you have given it to me?" He asked, keeping his strides short so as to not leave the girl behind.

She smiled across to him. "Not a chance lazy bones."

Starkk hadn't expected much when he picked up the lost Asauchi. A sword to carry around, and nothing more. He'd learn that the sword's name was Los Lobos, even if she preferred to go by Lilynette. Eventually he found his way into the Gotei-13, where he kept most at an arms distance but it was better than nothing.

A pack that he watched get torn to pieces, it's alpha left scattered in the wind. He wasn't the one to take up the lead, but for once as he stood with them. He was a lone wolf among a pack, but for once his howl joined the war cry. They would have vengeance, Yhwach would die for his crimes even if Starkk had to tear his throat out personally.

 **AN:** Haven't written a bleach thing in a while, then I saw a thing talking about the Espada's Soul Worlds, if they were shinigami and had Zanpakuto. It was an interesting thing and I felt like writing after I remembered my "Tea with a Death God" story. Could call it a prequel/sequel. Not going to write a full story cause I got enough of those to deal with, but I might write a few more one-shots dealing with the Espada as Shinigami cause I like the idea of it. And I will eventually get around to writing a version for Ulquiorra and Harribel's version. Anyways, hope you enjoyed the story and don't be afraid to leave a comment or concern.


	2. Imperial Shark Empress

Join or Die. Most would call it an ultimatum. Harribel would call it a joke, having heard the same phrase thrice before. Two times before she'd given her answer in the form of raised sword and a scar left in her wake. The third time she was shown the true power of the blade in her hands, stolen off the corpse of a thug. Like before, she had raised her sword, but no third scar was added to Barragan's sun-kissed skin as he gave her the ultimatum for the last time. He had grown bored of her defiance, no longer finding amusement in her struggle, only taxed patience.

It was a decision motivated by the trio hidden in the shack behind her. She submitted, another in the group of thugs and criminals that now numbered thirteen.

The roar of the waterfall was what drew her attention at first, the distinction she needed to tell reality from meditation. It was only drowned out by the heavy downpour of rain as Harribel approached the waterfront. Ankle deep in cool water, she walked against the current to stand by the shore. Solid ground beneath her feet gave way to a sheer drop until there was nothing in front of her except water and the beast.

Sky blue scales matched bone white protrusions as it lounged under the waterfall with an air of lazy peace. From a distance she couldn't help but feel insignigant in comparison. Water and scales stretched past the blurry horizon, and in the overcast lighting, Harribel could only make out the largest of details. A mass of fangs and tentacles that went on for miles, it's sheer size a statement of the power within it's controls. She had hoped for a more refined sword spirit, but she would deal with what she'd been dealt.

An eye the size of a lake opened at her approach, only to close just as quickly. A dismissive move. She had been weighed, measured and judged in one glance by her own Zanpakuto spirit. A spirit that found her wanting as it continued to lay under the falling water.

"You're name spirit." She commanded, unwilling to back down even as her words were lost in the chaos of the rain.

"I see no reason to give it to you." The voice came from everywhere and nowhere, sending ripples across the water's surface.

Fine, Harribel thought. She had not been the first one given a sword, nor would she be the first one to achieve Shikai. But, she would not be the last one either, her pride demanded it of her. The one women in a group of males, and she refused to be seen as the weakest. If the beast needed to have it's name beaten out of it, she was willing to oblige.

She got the spirits name years later, after months of struggle. A battle of attrition and dominance that left her exhausted as she wrestled with her sword for control, for power as she watched her unlikely comrades gain mastery over their own powers. No matter how much she struggled, she was still the last of the original thirteen to obtain her swords name. Tiburon, a name that seemed to mock her centuries later.

Tiburon, a name that even a thousand years later was all she had. A captain's haori had weighed heavy on her shoulder as she watched every new captain demonstrate their Bankai. She was the only exception made, having proved her abilites long before any of her newer comrades had joined the Gotei 13, much less been born.

"It does you no good to deny yourself."

Join or die. The words echo'd in the forefront of her mind as she stood before Tiburon. The once mighty waterfall was little more than a trickle, and there was no rain, her feet touching dry earth for the first time in living memory. She had long since wondered why. Why her? Why would a brutal conqueror such as Barragan had spared her so many times before. It was Tiburon's words that gave her the last cut she needed to make her realization.

Because she was no different. She was just as much of a killer and a monster as the rest of her original comrades. She dressed it up in self defense, but how many times had she allowed paranoia to make the decision for her, meeting fresh faces with sharpened steel. She had enjoyed the thrill of the fight as much as the rest of them, and denied herself the pleasure of admitting it.

She didn't have to ask. She didn't have to beg. She was given her birth right, the power she'd long held back. Out of fear for herself, for others who might be caught in her wake. She had a new captain's haori, one that weighed heavier than the first as she took up her sword and new mantle. Ywach would answer for his crimes, he had killed a king. Now it rested on the queen to take his head.

An opportunity she'd relish in.

 **AN:** I had an actual AN but the website apparently didn't like it. I think if anything, the person who'd have the most changes to her character in this AU would be Harribel, followed by Barragan. She carries over her instinctual need to kill people from being a hollow, yet still refuses to fall to her base instincts, much less acknowledge them. Which, unfortunately is a detriment to a shinigami's growth, which took the despair event horizon of Barragan's death for her to have the strength to admit she might be better off as a monster than a warrior. Anyways, comments, concerns and questions are always welcome, and if I feel like it, Ulquiorra's will be next. Have a nice day ^.^


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